Here’s a good article by By STEVE LOHR and JOHN MARKOFF of The New York Times. They discussed why is the Windows Operating System (OS) so slow - in terms of innovation and major releases. Speaking of which, Microsoft announced, on last Monday, that the new version of their flagship operating system, Windows Vista, which was slated to be released by end of 2006, will be delayed till 2007.

Here’s some quotes from the article.

On innovation…

In those five years, Apple Computer has turned out four new versions of its Macintosh operating system, beating Microsoft to market with features that will be in Vista, like desktop search, advanced 3-D graphics and “widgets,” an array of small, single-purpose programs like news tickers, traffic reports and weather maps.

On the issue of compatability…

Windows runs on 330 million personal computers worldwide. Three hundred PC manufacturers around the world install Windows on their machines; thousands of devices like printers, scanners and music players plug into Windows computers; and tens of thousands of third-party software applications run on Windows. And a crucial reason Microsoft holds more than 90 percent of the PC operating system market is that the company strains to make sure software and hardware that ran on previous versions of Windows will also work on the new one � compatibility, in computing terms.

Read the full article.

p.s. : the article has low geek level, it’s safe for normal consumption and easily digested